F.S Pioneers

anyhoo conj.

In origin a representation in print of a regional or colloquial pronunciation of anyhow, this new entry retains the core senses of that word. In more recent use, however, especially in North America, it has gained a specificity which earns it separate coverage from its “parent” in the OED, in use to indicate a change of subject in a conversation, sometimes as a very deliberate or ostentatious marker that the current subject has become too convoluted, dull, or indecent for talk of it to continue.

achy-breaky adj.

Inspired by the title of the 1992 hit “Achy Breaky Heart”, written by Don von Tress, and performed by Billy Ray Cyrus (now perhaps more famous as the father of Miley Cyrus, TV’s Hannah Montana), this adjective has found life after the pop charts in a variety of contexts, possibly aided in this by a capacity to prompt either extremely positive or extremely negative reactions in the people who hear it; not unlike the song itself.

blankie n.

The lexical innovations of children are often so short-lived or idiosyncratic that they do not gain widespread currency outside a particular family. Blankie, however, a colloquialism for “blanket” formed by adding the suffix –ie to the first syllable, has stood the test of time. Written evidence shows over 80 years of English usage of the word, especially in North America, but it probably has a longer, unrecorded history in the language of the nursery.

puh-leeze adv. and int.

Respelling is often used to convey qualities, such as emphasis or accent, which are easily distinguished in speech but difficult to express in written form. In this case, the respelling of please to indicate an emphatic or sarcastic pronunciation has become sufficiently well established to warrant inclusion in the OED as a separate entry.